CalmedByFish

To anyone who knows the answer: I'm having trouble putting the puzzle pieces together. Is the main problem that the bacteria crashed? It sounds like it had been fine. If the bacteria crashing is the main problem, how do we prevent that? I thought once a tank is stable, and isn't changed much, the bacteria is good to go. I can tell I'm supposed to be learning something here. To all of you who had the awful experiences in this thread, I'm so sorry.

The current scape actually looks a lot like a geological formation. A quick Google for slate formations pulls up "Mort Slate" and "Bull Point." I think they look really similar to what you did. 👍

The slanted slate is way cool, and you are clearly making the most of that room. High-five your cat for us. 😂

The description of the goober tank made me smile. 🙂 I'm glad things are going well! Welcome.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Thanks for this info. Based on emails I've gotten, my Powder Blue Dude should arrive Tuesday. He'll go into QT alone for at least a month. Thanks to this thread, I've dug up more gourami info that I hadn't known I needed. Fingers crossed!

It should be that gill flukes are visible, right? So I wouldn't need to medicate as a prophylactic?

I'm glad another was found! Whew! I don't have loaches, but I guess the idea is the same for any species: ideal water parameters, good nutrition, and time. If the scrape looks infected, I'd say to put up a separate post to get good ideas of how to help it. Maybe keep the lights lower than usual, since they like to hide?

Thanks for mentioning this. My new powder blue is marked online as "being processed" today, so I'll get myself clued in about that virus. It is fun! I have a suggestion aimed at long-term good. You could get only 1 or 2 females, put your very favorite male with her/them for a week, then just wait. When in great conditions and old enough, endlers give birth about every 3.5 weeks - that's pretty often! The fry that turn out to be male will probably be easy enough to keep, but the females get more out of control since they're larger and will eventually become fry-making machines. Maybe this way, you could have the joy without the overwhelm.

Not speaking from experience, but I'm pretty sure gouramis can go solo, much like a betta can. I think that's a common way to house males, particularly. If you're interested in having a single gourami, I'd say that's worth the time to research. It seems promising.

May your wedding be good, and your marriage be better. Congrats.

Endlers might be worth looking at, just because they're similar to guppies, but usually more durable. You could even compromise by getting a guppy-endler hybrid. A small shoal of platies would have their needs met by that tank. A quick google of something like "platy types images" would give you a quick overview of options. And since you mentioned dwarf powder blue gouramis, I hear several females can live together. I think female powder blues can live with female honeys - not certain.

Yeah, the main thing that steered me away from rams is the temp. I had it in my head that tetras need a pH that is low or in the low 7's. Could be wrong.

Welcome! My angel is my only fish that has a name, and the only one with an attitude. 🙂

This is exactly what I was going to suggest. Anubias because they're so easy, hornwort because it's so good at sucking out nitrates, and valisneria because it's like grass. For me, val has a strong tendency to get yellow tips that lead to a melted leaf, but it also has a strong tendency to not die. 👍

Beautiful tanks, and "Murderface" is an awesome name. 🙂 Welcome!

It sounds like the ones you've already decided on tend to stay on the sides and bottom of the tank. So maybe something that prefers the open water? I've never had apistos, but I'm thinking they stay toward the bottom, and the others like being up in the middle. Not sure. Something that has helped me is to write down all the water parameters needed by the ones I know I want, then look at where the overlap is. Then pick new tank mates that can be healthy inside of the overlap you've already got. An easy example is your mention of temperature. I'm thinking the max temp of your 3 species is around 78? So if, for example, you added a species that needs to be at 76+, you've got a super narrow temp range to try to control. The wider you can make your parameter ranges for a tank, the easier it is to maintain.

🙂 I'd been looking for years, and there's not a ton of options. Limitations for me were water parameters, tank size, tank mates, and whether I would still enjoy the blue if there were a lot of other colors. Deciding I very much preferred solid blue limited me to a powder blue gourami, or a solid blue betta. Of the 2, only the gourami could be found online. If you'd enjoy the blue even though it's just on a bit of the fishy, there are a lot more options.

Only a suggestion: If you trade out "perfect" for "improve," it might feel better. I'd like to stabilize or simplify my water critters. I'll soon have 3 new species in QT, but other than that, I plan to not add any other new species this year. And I need to reduce the total number of bodies of water I have, just so it's easier to keep track of water quality. I've already taken the first step toward that.

I just remembered seeing this. I've wanted a blue fish for years (my fav color of fish), who can also gulp fry (omg endlers). I ordered a male powder blue gourami. Then I saw @Irene's video this morning with a beautiful powder blue gourami! Seeing her beautiful fishy, I think I made the right choice.

You guys are magnificent. It looks like it was 2 days ago now that I suddenly couldn't take any more interaction, and stepped away from the forum. I'm really not sure whether or not it was good that I did! On one hand, if I'd seen all these comments, I might've pursued some arrangement with the lfs owner, and gotten everything I wanted for a pretty low price. On the other hand, I instead in these last 2 days ordered the fish online. If they do arrive healthy, then I suppose I've got my solution. But if they don't, I'm really going to wish I'd been on here and tried the lfs idea. Fingers crossed. Know that I appreciate each of you for stepping up to try to figure this out for me. Sorry I cut out for a couple days - I'd really lost my ability to even.

I think most of us have a fish that should win an award for what we've put them through. 🙂 Welcome to the forum! Your tanks look amazing.

Particularly since I know exactly what I want, this might work. I'll roll the idea around. Thanks. For lack of more forum-appropriate words, I'll just tell you that I hear you. I think the issue is unpredictability of mailing during holidays. I sincerely thank you. Good for them! And HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I don't understand the cold area question. But no, I don't have anyone. I thought of that, but after that person were to go in and potentially be exposed, I couldn't be around them for about 10 days. So that's not really a viable option.